• MoodyRaincloud@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    13
    ·
    1 year ago

    Housecats were actually keeping the bird population healthy for decades by eliminating the weak. Of course now that habitat destruction and toxins made entire populations weak it is a problem.

    But removing housecats to solve it is akin to drinking out of paper straws to solve plastic pollution. It helps, but it doesn’t do anything substantial.

    • kbotc@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      Why would you say that? Hawks and owls were the “natural” predator of North American song birds and I’ve seen plenty of raptors in my large US city. Not like bobcats are suffering population-wise in urban areas.

    • FireTower@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      Outside cat / feral cats have had massive negative impacts on bird and small mammal populations. Particularly in areas where they fill an ecological niche that the wildlife hasn’t adapted to due to none of the local fauna being in that niche. Hawaii and Australia in particular have this problem.

      • MoodyRaincloud@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        Those are indeed special situations where cats are basically an invasive species.

        Here in Europe the correlation between cats and bird population is not so strong. While destruction of habitat and the crash in insect numbers are the big culprits.